A pitch invasion incident took place in the second ODI between India and New Zealand in Raipur. During the second innings, skipper Rohit Sharma almost had a fall as a fan, who was getting chased by the security, breached the security to hug the Indian captain. The video has gone viral on the internet as recently a fan invaded the pitch during the Sri Lanka series to meet the Indian stalwart, Virat Kohli, reiterating the blind fan following in the country for the cricketers.
The incident took place in the 10th over of India’s chase of 109 runs. Four balls had been bowled as Rohit Sharma was going to take the guard to face pacer Blair Tickner’s next delivery as a young fan suddenly ran in on the pitch at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium.
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The fan hugged Rohit Sharma just for a second before the security chased him and tried to move the boy away from the Indian skipper and with him being still in contact with the fan, he was about to fall. However, he managed to helped himself well and the fan was escorted off the pitch. In a heartwarming gesture, Rohit told the security to “let him go, he’s just a kid.”
Here is the video of the incident:
A fan invaded and Rohit Sharma told the security to just let me go, "he's a kid".#RohitSharma #ICC #IndvsNZ2ndODI pic.twitter.com/11ae0TERUJ
— avinash madiwal (@madiwal_avinash) January 21, 2023
https://twitter.com/SaddamAli7786/status/1616769729754193920?s=20&t=BZKi8ob3hXvX_M_RJ6Y0lQ
This is the first-ever international game in the Chhattisgarh capital and this incident might have a telling effect on the number of games Raipur gets to host in the future.
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As for the game, Team India managed to bundle out New Zealand for a below-par score of 108 runs in an excellent exhibition of bowling. The Black Caps were reduced to 15/5 at one point before the likes of Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips took their side’s score to over 100. Pacer Mohammed Shami starred with three wickets.
Rohit Sharma, the captain, smashed a quickfire half-century to kill the chase early as the Men in Blue are inching closer to sealing the series in the second game itself, with Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill in the middle.